I was extremely organised over the weekend and got all our Christmas cards written, plus a gift parcelled up ~ I know, right, it's hard to believe I can be so organised, eh 😏
Anyhoo, whilst I was parcelling up said gift it occurred to me that over all the years that I've been doing this "Christmas-every-day" malarky (hereinafter known simply as CED 😉) for Beverly, I've never actually shown you the little bits and pieces that I gather together over the year that make up the CED. Obviously I can't show you the gifts before they are wrapped, just on the off-chance that Beverly might take it into her head to actually read her mother's blog for once 😄 I can, though, share them with you once she has opened the gift-of-the-day, so that's what I'm going to do during this month. Luckily I'll be able to purloin photos of said gifts from Beverly's Facebook page as she posts them each day ~ I'll probably post two or three days of the gifts at a time, though, so that I don't swamp the blog 😉
To be quite honest, I've been surprised by just how much her friends enjoy this rod-for-my-back tradition, and really seem to look forward to it each December! Some of them have commented about how they really like the idea, but I confess that I've tried to discourage them from starting the tradition themselves unless they really love trying to think of 24 little things to buy each year 😄 Not quite so hard buying for a small child, I suppose, but definitely not quite so easy for an adult ~ especially trying to find little things that are reasonably priced, considering there will be 24 of them!
I try to remember to look out for suitable gifts over the course of the year, especially when we travel south. This year, for instance, I was able to get a few bits 'n' bobs when we visited Sam in Leeds. I try to aim for a mixture of things: practical, edible, and just simply decorative. The "practical" stuff tends to be fancy toiletries, little items of kitchen paraphernalia, and just plain useful things. The edible and decorative stuff varies from year-to-year, although I do try not to get too many purely decorative things if possible. Of course the edibles can't be bought too far in advance! By the time November rolls around, though, I usually know how many days I don't have anything for, so edibles fill those gaps very nicely.
Oh, and just in case you're wondering what we do for Sam, he gets two parcels of "edibles" every year 😏
One is a hamper of Orkney foodstuffs from Jollys of Orkney ~ I go for the make-your-own option. This year I chose Orkney coffee (Jolly's blend), Orkney smoked cheddar (one cracked pepper, one sweet chilli, and the third red onion), smoked garlic bulbs, Orkney caramelised onion biscuits, Orkney butter shortbread, extra mature Orkney cheddar, Westray Chutney (spiced pepper), Orkney butter, Westray flakey biscuits, Stockan's mini oatcakes (one cracked black pepper, the other cheese), and finally Orkney Isles Preserves spicy tomato and onion relish. As you can see, there's a LOT of cheeses in there ~ my son certainly does love a bit of cheese 😄 He loves Orkney butter, too, so I included three packs this year!
We also get him a selection of beers, sent down from the Orkney Brewery. I'm afraid I can't tell you what he's had this year as Adrian arranged it and I can't remember now what he said he'd ordered! Oh, and by the way, it's perfectly okay for me to tell you about the hamper and beer for Sam as firstly I don't think he's ever read my blog in his life, and secondly we arranged for them to be sent early this year (so that things weren't sold out, like the butter was last year by the time I'd got round to making up the hamper!) so he's already received them 😉
So, back to Christmas-Every-Day for Beverly.....she hasn't posted today's little gift yet but here's what she unwrapped yesterday:
